Police Use DMX Photo to Draw Suspect Sketch for Attempted Murder Case

Columbia, S.C. police use a photo of DMX to help them get to the bottom of an attempted murder case from last month.

According to a July 8 report from South Carolina's The State newspaper, the Columbia Police Department used an image of the Ruff Ryders rapper while helping an artist draw a composite sketch of the attempted murder suspect.

Apparently, on June 19, the suspect shot and wounded a 27-year-old man during an altercation. When police talked to an eyewitness, the person said the suspect looked like the Grammy-nominated rapper. "The witness said to us, 'The guy looks a lot like DMX,'" said South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesperson Thom Berry.

For the record, DMX is not the suspect in the case. "I guarantee you he's not," Columbia Police Department Deputy Chief Melron Kelly told the newspaper.

Columbia police then called on a veteran and well-respected sketch artist to draw out the suspect. He used a dated photo of DMX (from the Ruff Ryders' website) and created a composite sketch of the suspect in the attempted murder case. The main differences between the DMX picture and the suspect's composite sketch are that the suspect has a full head of hair, a full beard and his left ear pokes out, whereas DMX is bald-headed and has a light beard.

"We always let the witness dictate the process and how everything unfolds," Berry said of the sketch-drawing process. "We make sure the witness sees everything we do and is comfortable with whatever rendering that we make."